Improving Law School Engagement

By Matthew Moschella

Matthew C. Moschella is chair of the Litigation Department at Sherin and Lodgen and a partner in the firm’s Litigation and Employment Departments. He represents companies and individuals in a wide variety of civil matters in state and federal courts across the country as well as in arbitration proceedings. Moschella also represents employers concerning complaints filed against them with state and federal administrative agencies. In addition to representing clients in various types of civil litigation, he counsels clients in a wide variety of industries on employment risk management issues. Moschella is also an adjunct professor at New England Law Boston, where he teaches contract drafting. Following law school, he was a law clerk to Hon. Judith Gail Dein, U.S. magistrate judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

This edition highlights the great efforts of three groups within the FBA that have worked, and are continuing to work, collaboratively to advance the goal of increasing the FBA’s law school presence throughout the country. Those groups are the Law School Engagement Working Group; the Circuit Vice Presidents; and the FBA’s fantastic staff. Following the National Board of Director’s vote in October to make law student membership free for a student’s entire time in law school and one-year post-graduation, these three groups have been able to create and implement a comprehensive and methodical plan to connect with every American Bar Association accredited law school in the country and take steps to increase the FBA’s presence at each school within the next few years.

The Law School Engagement Working Group is a newly formed group that meets monthly to talk about how to best engage law students. The group is composed of:

• The FBA’s three national officers;

• The chair and co-chair of the Circuit Vice Presidents;

• The chair and co-chair of the Section/Division Council;

• The chair and co-chair of the Membership Committee;

• The chair of the Judiciary Division (and several members of the division);

• The chair of the Clerk’s Committee;

• The chair of the Law Student Division;

• The chair of the Younger Lawyers Division; and

• Staff Liaisons Stacy King and Mike McCarthy.

Working together, this group created the Law School Status Report template below. The group’s plan and expectation is that each professional chapter’s law school liaison will submit the report on a monthly basis to the professional chapter’s assigned chapter vice president. The group has recognized that there will likely be different levels of engagement and involvement by different law schools at different times. Accordingly, the group has nominally identified five phases of law school participation and the report is designed to gauge each law school’s status and progress towards the next phase each month.

Phase A is entitled “Exploration/Confirmation” and has a target completion date of Feb. 2, 2023. During this phase, the professional chapter’s law school liaison will make first contact with the law school to:

(a) Determine if the law school has an existing FBA student chapter;

(b) Determine if the law school group is in good standing with regard to school requirements;

(c) Determine if the law school group has an organized leadership structure;

(d) Determine if the law school group has a faculty liaison; and

(e) Determine if law school currently permits an FBA professional chapter member to attend student orientation/initial meetings to promote the FBA and suggest students become members.

Phase B, entitled “Formation,” has a target completion date of March 1, 2023. During this phase, the professional chapter’s law school liaison will:

(a) Work with the school/students to generate interest in having an FBA student chapter;

(b) Communicate with the law school to determine requirements for a group to be in good standing with regard to school requirements;

(c) Identify potential student leaders for the group;

(d) Identify and establish a faculty liaison;

(e)Work with student leadership to ensure a leadership ladder/succession plan is in place;

(f) Determine if the law school will permit an FBA professional chapter member to attend student orientation/initial meetings to promote the FBA and suggest students become members.

(g) Determine if the law school will participate in Judicial Intern Academy, which is a summer internship program overseen by the Judiciary Division that provides learning opportunities for rising 2L students who are unable to devote the summer to a full-time, 40-hour per week judicial internship. The student commits to 20 hours each week. Each intern is paired with a former federal judicial law clerk who has agreed to serve as that intern’s advisor during the internship.

Phase C has a target completion date of March 15, 2023, and is entitled “Promotion.” During this phase, the professional chapter’s law school liaison will work with the FBA student leadership at the law school to generate broader student interest in the FBA student group.

Phase D is entitled “Programming” and has a target date of April 1, 2023. During this phase, the professional chapter’s law school liaison will work with the law school’s FBA student group to plan events at the law school and with other local law schools as professional chapter-wide events. The professional chapter’s law school liaison will also work with local courts and law school(s) on the Judicial Intern Academy and communicate with a professional chapter representative who liaises with local federal courts for this program.

Phase E is the final phase, and the one where the group would like to see all law schools within the next few years. It is entitled “Ongoing” since the phase contemplates that there will be indefinite ongoing synergy between the FBA and the law school. During this phase, the professional chapter’s law school liaison will remain in contact with the law school faculty liaison and student leadership to ensure that the student group remains in good standing with regard to its school requirements; remains active; has leadership succession; is continuing to recruit new student members; and has active programming.

Upon first contact, some schools may already be at phase B or above, and that is great. If so, the professional chapter’s law school liaison will work with the school to advance to the next phase. Also, the group recognizes that not every item in each phase will be feasible at every law school, and that is fine. The overall goal is to increase the FBA’s presence at each law school, so whatever works with any particular school in any particular circumstance is great and more than accomplishes the group’s goal.

The reports were disseminated by the chapter vice presidents to the professional chapters in December of last year, and the first scheduled submission date is the end of January. The LSEWG is looking forward to receiving the reports each month as they will guide the continued outreach approach. The group also has created a chart with all ABA accredited law schools and is tracking progress for each one. The reports will play a key role in this process.

If you are a professional chapter leader and have not yet assigned a law school liaison to connect with law schools in your professional chapter’s geographic region, please assign someone as soon as you can. Also, if you have not yet connected with your CVP or obtained the report template, please contact your CVP. If you are a law student or work at a law school and are interested in furthering the FBA’s involvement with your school but have not yet connected with your professional chapter’s law school liaison, please contact either your professional chapter’s leadership, or me, and we will get you to right place.